


And If I Heard You, Which I Don't

by ambiguously



Category: Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Threesome - M/M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-07
Updated: 2020-04-07
Packaged: 2021-02-28 19:54:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,489
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23472799
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ambiguously/pseuds/ambiguously
Summary: Darth Vader has taken two very valuable prisoners. So why does he feel like the one in a cell?
Relationships: CT-7567 | Rex/Ahsoka Tano/Darth Vader
Comments: 18
Kudos: 60
Collections: Party in the GFFA: Star Wars Flash Exchange 2020





	And If I Heard You, Which I Don't

**Author's Note:**

  * For [lastwingedthing](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lastwingedthing/gifts).



He isn't foolish enough to leave them in the same cell block. Out loud, he refers to them by their duties and designations. "Move the clone to another cell," he intones gravely to the quivering idiot in charge of this block. "Not in the same block with the Apprentice." Randomizing their locations may open opportunities for escape, but it will make any attempt to contact or locate the other impossible.

Truthfully, he should keep them in separate prisons. His Master has teased and dug at him, suggesting a simpering fidelity remains in Vader's heart for Anakin Skywalker's old friends. Vader knows this not to be true, knows he keeps them near him for other purposes.

She looks up as he opens the door to her latest cell. For a moment, Ahsoka's face radiates hope, some unfathomable belief that within the darkened core of Vader, some good spark remains. As he steps inside, she tells him, "I was wondering when you'd come to visit today. You're late."

"Do not presume to know my plans."

"I don't. You were always lousy at planning."

Ahsoka can get under his skin in ways few people ever could. She watches him now with a mixture of pity and that same hope, wondering if he has considered her last proposal. It's ludicrous, of course. Impossible. He won't betray his Master, free her and the clone, and fly away from here with them. She was a fool for making the suggestion.

"You have been given time to think. Now the decision is at hand. Will you bow before the Emperor and join him at his side?" He doesn't say the alternative. She knows full well what rejection means.

Ahsoka shakes her head. "That doesn't sound like anything I would do. It doesn't sound like you, either. The Anakin Skywalker I knew would have laughed off that kind of offer."

"The Anakin Skywalker you knew is dead."

"So I've heard." She always changes her expressions near the end of their conversations. The hope fades, and sorrow, regret, and something else replaces it as she looks at him. "You can tell the Emperor I'm not interested in his offer. He can kill me now if he likes." She's said this before. Ahsoka does not value the price of her own life.

A new thought strikes him, belated and huge. He turns from her, even though he knows she cannot see his expression under his mask. "Perhaps he will kill the clone instead for your insolence."

Long ago, another man whose name he now only speaks in loathing felt an affinity for this woman's emotions, reveling with her as she reveled, reeling with her as she reeled. He feels a sudden sharp worry flow from her now, a spike of terror he has not been able to urge from her prior to this moment. She is not afraid for her own life, but a threat to Rex's? That gives her pause.

"Perhaps the Emperor will allow you to watch his execution," Vader tells her, and exits her cell.

Full of new purpose, he makes his way to the cell block in another level of his vast Star Destroyer. The cells here allow no privacy at all, only a force field wall between the prisoners and their guards.

"Leave us," Vader commands them, and waits for the young troopers to depart. He watches Rex in his cell. For his part, Rex doesn't react. He fought with fists and venom and guile when he was first captured, and he refused to buckle under the tender ministrations of the IT-O. The Empire still does not know the location of the Rebel bases where this old clone has been stationed. There would be something to admire about his stubbornness if there were not so much to despise.

"We will find your Rebel friends and we will annihilate them. Your silence will not protect them."

Rex folds his arms. "If you say so."

The clone has been difficult to coerce. He will be more useful as an asset to the Empire than he will as a martyr to his own cause. Vader knows this. Rex could see his way through the other side of problems back in the Clone Wars. Surely his vast military training could end this brewing war before it begins, given his knowledge of the Rebels' tactics and assets.

He will not see reason.

"Your acquiescence is not required. You will be eliminated." He sees no fear on the clone's face. "As will Skywalker's Padawan."

He doesn't need to feel the man's emotions to read the sudden fear. 

"You don't have to kill her."

"The Emperor disagrees," Vader says, turning away, knowing the Emperor would be happiest if he executed them both and finished this cleanly.

He leaves the clone stewing in his own fears. For the next rotation, he orders their cells to be put next to one another. "For security," he tells his troops, but there is no good reason for this.

He gives them two days with as much privacy as can be afforded by an open force field and constant watch by his stormtroopers. He observes the holo feed from the cell block, taking in the joy on both faces as they see one another again, and the growing horror on Rex's face as Ahsoka tells him in careful code about the man Vader was long ago in another life. He watches, drinking in their movements, their reactions, and the empathy flowing between the charged walls of their cells.

He cannot tell himself why.

After the time he chose has passed, he dismisses their guards and makes his way to the cell block. It has been emptied except for these two prisoners, his prizes, the Emperor's highly marked targets safe in their cells.

Vader says nothing as he stands there, watching them. Ahsoka comes to the glittering wall of the force field. Rex stays back, drawn within himself, his eyes flickering to Vader, taking in the dark suit amidst the knowledge of Ahsoka's revelation. He does not want to believe, but he does believe, and his soul is torn.

"Anakin Skywalker would never enslave his friends," says the Padawan, blue eyes blazing with righteousness.

The clone says nothing, watching first his friend, then his enemy, wondering if the latter was once his friend, too. His face is naked under the harsh lights, wanting to hope, and horrified to suspect.

"Anakin Skywalker died long ago."

"I told you I would avenge him."

"Many others have boasted the same," he tells her. "They also perished."

She stands next to the force field, and she glimmers in its wake. "Then kill me."

Vader watches her. Her statement has drawn Rex's attention, his eyes flickering between the two of them like a man torn between two perfect desires.

"When the Emperor gives the order for your death, I will execute you. Not before."

"Am I a test, then? Is your master measuring your loyalty? Or are you supposed to convert me as your next tool, the way he did Maul and Dooku? I won't join you," she adds, as though she needs to tell him again.

"You will join the Emperor or you will die." He's said the words enough times that they sound hollow even to his own ears. Using his new advantage, he gestures at Rex, reaching out with his powers, clenching the Force at the clone's throat.

Rex doesn't flinch. He doesn't clutch for his own neck, doesn't stagger or beg. He stands there, watching Vader even as Vader exerts his power, choking the life from him. His eyes say enough, accusing him with a thousand shared moments, and a thousand unspoken promises. He is remembering years of struggle at Anakin's side, remembering every millimeter of ground they fought and bled for together.

Vader releases him.

"I will destroy you both," he says, and leaves them there. But he doesn't change their cells, and he doesn't give the order for their executions. He watches them instead. Inside of his mind, buried deep under the hate and the fear and the anger, another emotion stirs.

He wonders what would happen if the force fields happen to fall. He wonders if they will run, or if they will stalk these corridors looking for him. He wonders if they will face him, standing together, demanding and pleading for him to join them instead of fighting him. He wonders what his response will be, if he will light his own red blade and strike them down, or if he will reach out his hand and follow them into an unknown future.

Vader spends hours in thought, pondering this.

He barely knows what he is doing when he cuts the power to the cell block where they are held. As he feels the first stirrings of concern in his mind from the Emperor, he discovers he is excited to find out the answers.


End file.
